A last resting Place
by Wind'ssong-Water'scall
Summary: The end has come. Are they ready to face it? Warning: This story contains slash.


A Last Resting Place

A/N: Warning this story is slash. Please read and review.This story was betaed by the wonderful sublimatedangel.

Angel looked sadly over at his friends sitting around the table. Tonight  
would be their last night together. Tomorrow when the sun rose high in the  
sky, the demons would again attack. He wasn't naive enough to think that they  
would all make it through. How many previous battles had proven that fact to  
him? To be truthful, he was extremely surprised to have made it this far. After  
the first battle with Wolfram & Hart, he thought it would be a simple matter of  
being finished off, seeing as they had lost the battle. Gunn, Fred, Wes, and  
hundreds of others had died in that first battle. But the newly re-instated  
Watchers' Council had finally taken heed to his request for help. Soon, mass  
amounts of slayers, Watchers, and witches had arrived at his front door, hoping  
to be able to help.

He didn't think he had ever seen so much power gathered in one place, nor  
did he ever expect to see the likes of it again. But even with the best  
slayers, Watchers, and witches the world could provide, there had been little  
hope. That was until back-up showed up. Back-up had come in the form of one  
Xander Harris with over a million demons at his back. It seemed the demon world  
didn't like the idea of being taken over anymore than they did, and with the  
help of Oz, Xander had gone from group to group gathering the best fighters for  
what would most likely be the world's last stand.

Many of the young slayers had thought that with the kind of power they had  
gathered, the upcoming battle would be short and sweet. Sadly, they were all  
too wrong and the war seemed to stretch on, taking more and more victims as it  
went. Not long ago, they had buried Buffy and Giles side by side, hoping that  
their final rest would be much more peaceful than their lives. Faith, Robin,  
Oz, Kennedy, Andrew, Willow, and thousands of others had also been buried one  
by one in the soiled ground.

Angel felt the loss of their deaths keenly with each passing moment. Of the  
Scooby gang, only Xander and Dawn were left. Of his own people, there was only  
himself and Spike and he really didn't think they would last too much longer.  
The others - the demons, witches, Watchers, and slayers that he could not name  
- had also dwindled to staggeringly low numbers.

Angel sighed. Thinking of the loss wouldn't help him now. He must think of the  
future and try to find some hope to give to the others. He wished he knew what  
to say to give the last of his loved ones courage, but he himself felt the  
whole situation was hopeless. If only there was something, anything that could  
give them the upper hand in this whole mess...

If he could find it, maybe he wouldn't have to say goodbye to the last of his  
friends and the fate of the Earth as well. Suddenly there was a loud booming  
bang that made the walls and floor shake.

"Bloody Hell, what was that?" Spike asked, one hand gripping the table while  
the other reached out to grab Dawn's arm to keep her from falling.

"I think," Xander said in a small voice, "I think they got tired of waiting."

Glancing around to try and judge the damage, Angel moved to stand on the  
table so that everyone could see him.

"This is it everyone. Everything comes down to this moment. Whether we live or  
die, whether or not we save the world for our loved ones rests on what we do  
now."

Looking around the room he saw fear and pain etched into their faces. Thinking  
fast, he thought of the only thing that had any chance of saving them. Sadly,  
if it went wrong, it would kill them all.

"Alright, enough of this moping. I want all the witches to gather on the far  
left hand side of the room. All the rest should gather on the right." He waited  
for them to form their groups before speaking again.

"Now, I want each and every witch to choose a power source, either a slayer or  
a demon, and claim them. " Again he waited as they made their choices. He  
watched as the thirty or so witches made their choices.

"Finally, all those not chosen please move aside. Dawn, Xander, Spike  
please come to the front please." Once his friends reached him he embraced them  
all before turning back to the crowd. "For this last battle, I want all those  
not chosen to guard the door; the witches and their chosen companions will be  
helpless to fight back. Witches, I have a request of you, one that you won't  
like but must do. When the time comes I want you tap the power of your chosen  
and combine it with your fellow witches to open a gateway." Everyone gasped in  
shock. They all knew that there would be no way of knowing what world their  
gateway would open to and they had no clue whether there would be something  
waiting for them on the other side. "Once that gateway is open you must keep it  
open long enough for us to drive the enemy into it. Then you must close it."  
Frantic whispers were heard all around the room but soon they were quieted by  
another loud banging boom that again shook the walls and  
floor.

Gathered in their positions, they waited for all hell to break loose, and they  
didn't have long to wait. Soon the door burst open and Angel threw himself  
into the fight with one last look at his friends. Losing himself in the blood  
lust, he didn't notice as hundreds of others fell at his sides. Soon they were  
thinning and hope was weak, but at the right moment there was a burst of  
light and he turned to see that the portal was open. It grew in size until it  
removed the roof from the building and raised up towards the night sky. Moving  
in quick, calculated moves, Angel and the others soon had the beasts and their  
minions angled towards the gateway. Driving them back, he watched as they were  
swallowed by the wavering portal.

Out of nowhere, a beast of indescribable strength moved to swallow Angel.  
Turning as quickly as he could, he narrowly escaped its grasp. Soon he found  
Spike and Xander at his side. With their combined efforts, they pushed the  
beast back into the portal just before the witches closed it. As they fell to  
the ground in exhaustion, Angel looked around to see who was left. Many of the  
demons laid slain across the room, at the most there were probably only ten or  
so still alive. Out of the slayers he could only make out about fifteen or so  
that had survived, and of the witches there was probably  
only twenty-five or so, even though they'd been the most protected.

Out of the millions that had come to face this challenge originally, this was a  
rather depressing number to be left with. Sighing he turned to locate his  
friends, only to find Spike and Xander leaning over the body of Dawn. He could  
tell even from even where he stood that she was gone and wouldn't be returning  
to them. For a moment he stood there, not sure he could take the pain from the  
loss that surrounded him. Finally he pulled himself together and moved to his  
only remaining family. The second he reached Spike's side, his childe fell into  
his arms, tears streaming down his face. The sight of such misery and pain was  
too much to take, and he too broke down in tears. Seeing the vampires were in  
no state to stand on their own, Xander pulled them back towards the wall and  
let it brace his weight as he pulled them into his arms.

Years passed, and the destruction from the last battle with Wolfram & Hart was  
slowly yet surely cleared away. The few demons that had been in that final  
battle and survived had gone home to loved ones knowing that they had done  
something no other demon before them could boast of. The witches and slayers  
had united, taking control of the Council and its remaining members. The  
slayers, so few in number now, spread themselves out among the nations in order  
to spread their power. The witches were in charge of gathering and training  
both new Watchers and slayers.

And in a little village in Scotland, in an old and slightly crumbling castle  
lived three vampires. The years, for them, had begun to ease the pain that  
even to this day could sometimes rob them of unneeded breath. Each day made it  
a little better, and they had each other to lean on when it all became to much.

The decision to become a vampire was not the lightest one Xander Harris had  
ever made, but it was in some ways the easiest. With witches from the Council  
there to restore his soul curse-free in a matter of minutes after his turning,  
he knew he had nothing to be ashamed of. This was the only way he could stay  
with the only family he had left. In his short life he had lost everything but  
these two men, and he knew that if he died, they would follow him shortly  
thereafter.

So they took each day one day at a time, letting the pain slowly numb to a dull  
ache, and one day Angel realized he was happy.

Angel woke to the sight of his grand-childe and great-grand-childe curled  
around him and smiled with contentment. He had been thrilled when Xander had  
agreed to allow Spike to turn him; for years he had feared that Xander would  
refuse and he would again lose someone he had come to love. Now after all these  
years he again had a family. He couldn't lie, it wasn't always easy. There were  
days that he thought he would feel no guilt at killing both Spike and Xander as  
they ran along the countryside playing prank after prank. But there were other  
days that he felt nothing but happiness as they spent the day cuddling in front  
of the fire or wrapped together in the still sweaty sheets.

Curling into their embrace to go back to sleep, he smiled. Good or bad, he  
wouldn't trade one day spent with the men he loved, and this one was just beginning.


End file.
